An Hangtown fry is an egg scramble made with bacon and oysters. The origins date to the days of the California gold rush circa 1850. Placerville, California, in the heart of the gold country was then known as Hangtown, thanks to a local judge
with a summary concept of justice. The Hangtown fry originated when a gold miner struck it rich and asked a Hangtown eatery to prepare something with the most expensive ingredients at hand. That turned out to be eggs, oysters, and bacon. Those are fine ingredients, so why not try it out?

There is some question as to the details of the recipe. Were the bacon and oysters cooked separately and added to the eggs, or was the whole thing just scrambled together in one big mess? On the one hand it’s a little hard to imagine a gold rush cook take pains to individually prepare ingredients, but on the other hand it might be that when food is precious and labor is cheap that the result is considerable care. I decides to fry the bacon and oysters separately, dredging the oysters in cornstarch and flour and frying them up in the bacon grease. Using extra pure grapeseed oil for frying would have definitely ruined the spirit of the dish.

I like to add a little water to the eggs for scrambling to keep them soft. Too much water and you get egg drop soup, but a tablespoon to four eggs is okay. In this case I had the liquid from the oysters, so I used that to good effect.

I combined the oyster liquid, eggs, bacon, and oysters and scrambled the whole thing up.

The finished dish is every bit as opulent today as it was when enjoyed by the lucky prospector. It’s too rich for every day, but there are still gold strikes, or the equivalent, these days.

The Hangtown Fry appears on menus in San Francisco and elsewhere in Nothern California, but not as often as one might suppose. Outside of California, it is a rarity. I once made a sighting in Florida, but unfortunately failed to photograph the menu as proof. There are reports of a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, that finds favor with the dish.

Chef John Mitzewich offers a video recipe for a Hangtown Fry. His version puts all the fried oysters and half the bacon on top of eggs scrambled with the other half of the bacon. No oysters scrambled in? I think that’s going too far afield, but, hey, it’s a free country.